Strawberry Chocolate
by fiesa
Summary: When he sees the ugly lumps of chocolate underneath the pretty ones, he knows who has given it to him. OneShot.


**Strawberry Chocolates**

_Summary: When he sees the ugly lumps of chocolate underneath the pretty ones, he knows who has given it to him. OneShot. _

_Warning: Natsume, Mikan, approximately 17 years old. Nope, this wasn't written for Valentine's Day.  
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_Set: Story-unrelated, inspired by ch73 – Valentine's Day, future-fic_

_Disclaimer: Standards apply. _

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There was no card attached to the little bag of sweets he found in his table when he finally managed to escape the royal rumble Valentine's Day had been expected – and, again, had proven – to be. God Gracious, when would those _girls_ understand that he neither cared for their attention nor wished for their affection?

The simple answer was: never.

So here Natsume was, once again. All alone and on the run, hiding in the empty classroom because – and here he felt a _tiny_ pang of guilt – they now were chasing Ruka. But his friend would be fine, he knew, he always had had a knack for disappearing from the surface and his animals loved to help because it meant he spent more time with them.

Outside the window, Ando was yelling at Harada. Natsume couldn't hear the words but by the not-couple's gestures, both were upset. Leaning forward, careful not to be seen from the outside, he tried to catch their words. He didn't succeed but suddenly Ando grabbed Harada and kissed her and judging by her reaction she wasn't all too displeased by his doings. The same second, a member of the school's newspaper appeared and took a photo and Harada screamed at Ando and started to chase the unfortunate (or not) reporter. The way Ando grinned told Natsume more than he wanted to know. Sinking down to the floor, his back pressed to the wall, he once again directed his attention to the little bag of chocolate in his hands.

It was a plain bag with a plain, red ribbon.

Normally, he would never have considered eating its contents. But as it was, he had been forced to skip breakfast _and_ lunch and now, at almost half past four in the afternoon, his stomach was grumbling. Plus… He pulled out the _Girl's Surprises Detector _(short: GSD) he had _purchased_ from Imai. The greedy inventor had made him pay dearly for the instrument. Small as a laser pointer, it detected even the tiniest traces of every single crazy potion, poison or other surprise anyone could have thought of putting into Valentine's chocolate. He wasn't stupid. He wouldn't get himself into trouble at Valentine's Day ever again.

And the chocolate was clean.

Hungrily, he pulled out a piece and tried it. It tasted remarkably good. _Who?_, he wondered. Every girl he knew would prefer to give him her chocolate in person, hoping he would try some of it and fall in love with her or do anything else both embarrassing and unthinkable. And the chocolate was plain, without colorful sprinkles, sugar coating, marzipan roses or hearts. He couldn't imagine Shouda or some of her likes to prepare such _plain_ chocolate, to hide it in his desk and to even refuse to put a tag on the bag. They would have wanted him to see who had given it to him and would want to watch him eat it, so… Maybe, someone was waiting for him to try it _just now_?

Suspiciously, he eyed the classroom. There was nothing to be seen – neither a hidden camera (he had developed an eye for such equipment) nor anything else dangerous. There was no one close, either. He felt no presence in his direct environment.

Maybe it was just chocolate. Maybe it was just a gift from someone who didn't want to give it to him in person – or who had thought it easier to place it somewhere he would find it anyway. Perhaps this person had known he would hide here? Ruka, maybe, foreseeing that Natsume would become hungry? No, it couldn't have been Ruka. The chocolate was hand-made. So who?

He still hadn't narrowed down the giver and he just pulled out another piece of chocolate (it had the form of a star, this time) when he saw it.

His hand froze.

-v-

The last time she had done this, she had switched some ingredients and forgotten about the sugar and her chocolate had been inedible. The last time she had tried to do chocolate by herself her sweets had looked like little grey rocks without any form, peppered with pieces of nuts and candied fruits. The last time he had seen her cook had ended in a catastrophe.

When the heck had Mikan Sakura learned to do chocolates like this?

-v-

Reality hit him hard: She had grown up. Picturing her face before his eyes he saw her blond hair, her eyes, her smile. Her face had lost the childish-naïve expression; her hair was longer and fell over her shoulders in soft waves. Her arms and legs were longer, and she had developed… curves? He scoffed. No. _Never_. Mikan Sakura _never_ had made these. They were too good to have been prepared by the stupid dumb-head that still was his partner.

At the same time, his inner voice (which he ignored meticulously) told him she had changed, had learned and grown. And suddenly, he felt the strong urge to see her, to see her smile and hear her voice. And he knew she had made the chocolate he was holding just know, both the bulky and the pretty ones.

He regarded the clunky piece of chocolate he had found underneath the perfect shapes of stars and flowers. A chocolate rock, misshaped, bulky but sweet, peppered with all kinds of nuts, chocolate sprinkles, sugar pearls and candied fruits. It looked exactly like the chocolate balls she had done the first Valentine's Day she had been in school.

Natsume didn't notice he was smiling while he stared down at the clunky shapes with an expression that was almost soft. It looked like a strawberry, the thing really did.

A chocolate strawberry.


End file.
